Bent
by baby-kitsune9
Summary: this story has torture in it. Charlie had died right in front fo them. a victim of a cruel game devised to destroy them and drive them mad. it backfired. they refused to die. to go quietly,broken into pieces. Rated M. new chap 16
1. Chapter 1

Luthinea- this is something like what you've asked for so I'll go on and dedicate this to you.

I don't own the biker mice. And to be honest I don't wish too. I'm too sadistic and dark minded for such nice guys and I'd bully them endlessly for my own amusement.

This story will have _violence, _mentions of torture and gore. Some of it will be explicit.

So anyone who got squeemish during all of the Saw movies shouldn't read chapter one. In fact...skip it. God knows I wish I could.

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It was supposed to be an ordinary day in June.

The guys had beaten the snot out of their least favorite fish then had gone to the Garage and grabbed Charlie girl, their human companion and friend, and had gone on a little road trip intending to go on a picnic and unwind.

They didn't know what was in store for them or they would have stayed home. They would have stayed away from Charlie-girl. They would have watched football on their TV, eaten hot dogs and rough housed a little bit.

But instead they had gone out. And the second they reached the outer city limits they'd sprung a trap set by their enemy-well one of them anyways. They'd lost control of their bikes crashed into the ditch or each other causing considerable damage to their bikes and their bodies. Charlie had been thrown from Vinny's bike and hit a piece of cement railing so hard that Vinny had almost broken his own leg just trying to reach her.

But he never made it thanks to the black hooded figure that walked up and shot him with a dart gun before shooting the rest of them.

After that things went fuzzy for a while. When their minds cleared of the drug induced fog they found themselves laying on a cold concrete floor in a large warehouse like place, their weapons and helmets having been stripped from their bodies leaving them helpless.

There was a length of thick silver chain attached to one of their wrists and they could vaguely see through their blurred vision, Charlie.

She was hanging spread eagle by her wrists and ankles, her arms and legs stretched taunt. And she'd been stripped of her jacket and pants leaving her in just her shirt and panties. Half naked and vulnerable.

"Guys! Guys! Wake up! Wake up please- Please wake up!" Charlie sobbed.

She sounded so scared. _Terrified_ even. Her fear was enough to completely rouse them. Forcing their minds to go from semi conscious to fully conscious in the span of a heartbeat.

They all pushed themselves up and started to look for weaknesses in the chains and wall that they were attached too while Modo talked to Charlie. Asking her if she was okay and if she knew anything about how they could get out.

Charlie was barely coherant enough to tell them anything. She was utterly terrified of the one's that had done this to them. Something that the bros found more than a little bit alarming since the woman was usually so calm in the midst of danger.

She babbled, her words rushed between sobs. And though they were listening they couldn't understand what she was saying. She was talking much too fast. Vinny tried calming her, telling her not to worry none, everything would be fine. They'd been through worse.

They couldn't have been more wrong.

They realized this the second that the chains holding Charlie started to screech as a large spinning saw blade descended from the ceiling above her and started swinging back and forth like a pendulum, dropping a scant inch or so after making one swing.

They stared at the blade suspended above her back in wide eyed horror and disbelief as an disembodied voice said. **_"All you have to do to save her is break the chain and reach her. If you can manage that, the blade will stop. If not- Then it's bye-bye baby." _**

They pulled at the chain around their wrists frantically, trying to rip the mental from the wall. They jerked and pulled until the metal cut their skin causing them to bleed. By this time the blade had dropped dangerously and was close to making contact with Charlie's body. She screamed in fear and tried to pull herself free, tears slipping down her pale cheeks, her breath coming out in quick ragged sobs.

Vinny managed to partially pull his hand free, the burning in his wrist warning that he was close to breaking the bone as he pulled savagely, desperate to reach Charlie-gilr before any harm came to her.

The blade touched her skin and the three nearly had heart attacks when they looked up at her as she let out an agonized scream as the saw started to cut into her. They jerked harder-

Snapping their bones and cutting their wrists deeper. They could see Charlie's blood, spewing into the air as she was cut. Throttle jerked his wrist free and took off running as fast as he could across the warehouse, and was half way to Charlie when the saw dropped competely down.

Charlie's body was severed in two, spilling her blood and organs onto the saw laying on the floor under her.

They screamed in rage and denial. Pain and grief. The sounds of their screaming was so loud that it drowned out the last breath Charlie took.


	2. Chapter 2

Luthinea- this is something like what you've asked for so I'll go on and dedicate this to you.

I don't own the biker mice. And to be honest I don't wish too. I'm too sadistic and dark minded for such nice guys and I'd bully them endlessly for my own amusement.

This story will have _violence, _mentions of torture and gore. Some of it will be explicit.

This chapter takes place a few years after Charlie's death.

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Four years later-

Twenty year old Alice Lorin Michelle Buckner walked out of her shabby, run down little cabin and looked around. It had been four years since she, her mother, step father, and two siblings had gone on a normal family vacation and had been systematically wiped out by a seiries of bloody traps that a group of bored, _sadistic_ millionares had designed and set.

Her mother and younger sister Abbey had both been the first to go. The trap that they had been stuck in had been with sawed off shot guns pointed at them and the strings attached to the triggers had also been attached to the door into the room.

He step father had tripped the trap when he had pulled the door open in his haste to get to them. They had died instantly. Both of their heads had been blown completely off, spattering their blood and insides all over the place.

Mark, her step father had been the next to go.

He'd foolishly dived into a pool of acid that had ate away at his body before he could reach the key that their captors had promised would set them free. His entire body had dissolved in the pool in under ten minutes leaving nothing but a few bones wrapped in bubbling rags laying at the bottom of the pool.

Next she and her brother had run through a series of rooms that had thrown everything from arrows, to knives, needles, poisons, and anything else the human imagination could think of. By the time they had reached the last room they had been in real trouble, and knew it.

The floor under them had been rigged to slowly move out from under their feet and would have dropped them inside of a pit of flames that could only be described as hell like.

Her brother had managed to get the key and had just unlocked the door when the floor under her feet had given out and she had started to fall. Michale had managed to grab her, but had lost his balance and fallen into the pit. She had dropped to the small space between the pit and the door and tried repeatedly to help him, but it had already been too late.

Michale had burned alive right before her eyes, screaming for her to save him and all she had to show for her efforts to save him were the burn scars on her hands and arms where the flames had burned layers of skin right off of her.

She looked around the woods outside her home and anxiously shifted from foot to foot. Ever since late yesterday evening she had been getting the feeling that she was being watched. It was that prickling feeling she got when the hair on the nape of her neck stood on end.

She'd had that feeling all day and night and just couldn't seem to shake the feeling no matter how much she looked around and tried to tell herself that she was just being paranoid. The fine hairs on her nape continued to stand on end, warning her that the feeling she was getting wasn't_ all_ in her head.

_Someone_ or _something_ was definately watching her.

She just hoped that they were much friendlier than the last group of people that had watched her. Supressing a shiver she moved a little farther from her home and headed towards the river fifteen feet from the cabin so that she could get some water.

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Scarlet eyes watched the human from between tree branches. Observing the pattern of behavior in an effort to gauge whether or not the human was a threat while silently calculating things like age, gender-

He estimated that the human was between the ages of sixteen and eighteen. Gender was...

His eyes flicked to the slim, delicately boned, child like frame.

Female. Gender was female.

Hair was a soft mid back length dark brown. Eyes... He had only seen them for a moment a few seconds ago and could only make a guess about whether they were forest green or aqua.

Weight-

Alarmingly thin for someone her age. He calculated that she probably weighed no more than a hundred pounds. When she was wet.

Height- Five foot five.

All and all total impression. Non combatant, _helpless_- She'd be dead in a week.

He shifted and slowly moved back the way he had came on his stomach, using the tall grass and thick undre brush to hide himself as he slowly edged his way back to the path a hundred or so feet from the shed that he'd found while out walking. He needed to return home and report what he'd found so that his brothers would be warned of the woman's presence.


	3. Chapter 3

Luthinea- this is something like what you've asked for so I'll go on and dedicate this to you.

I don't own the biker mice. And to be honest I don't wish too. I'm too sadistic and dark minded for such nice guys and I'd bully them endlessly for my own amusement.

This story will have _violence, _mentions of torture and gore. Some of it will be explicit.

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It had been three years for them.

_Long, agonizing, painful_- years since Charlie had died right in front of them. And since then several things had happened. They'd cut off all ties with mars. They'd stopped contacting Stoker. Throttle had broken up with Carbine.

They were no longer a part of what happened to Mars. They no longer cared about what happened to the planet. They no longer concerned themselves with what happened to it's people.

They simply couldn't do it anymore. All it had ever gotten them was heartache.

They'd left the city, the scoreboard and Last Chance garage for a more secluded and private area a few miles outside of Chicago in the wilds of one of the forests. They'd gotten special permission from a politition to reside there and had built themselves a cozy wood cabin to live in. Had bought a generator to power the electronic devices- the fridge, stove, lights.

They'd had indoor plumming installed about a year ago after Vinny finally started bitching about using pine cones.

Which had been funny at first. Though the never really laughed anymore. But finally Vinny's bitching had gotten to them and out of semi sympathy they had finally had the plumbing put in. It had taken forever, but Throttle supposed that it was worth it even though they no longer bathed inside, and only used the plumbing for cooking, coffee, and the bathroom.

Anything outside of that was done at the river about half a mile from their home.

Throttle and Modo were at the river, like they usually were at nine something in the morning, washing the blood from their latest kill from their fur. Their kill, a human male that they recognized as one of Limberger's goons, lay several feet from away in tattered and bloody clothes, his neck and stomach had been ripped open spilling out many of the organs when they had taken him down.

A look of permanant surprise etched into his features even in death.

Throttle supposed he'd have been surprised too if the roles of predator and prey had been reversed.

But then again he'd probably been more surprised by the fact that they were still alive and were no longer playing nice with their prey.

Greasepit had died writhing and screaming up until Modo had gotten tired of hearing him and torn his throat out with the metal claws he'd attached onto his robotic finger tips. Once they were done washing up a little bit they'd drag the body further into the woods and hang it from a tree and let the animals take care of the clean up.

They were almost done cleaning themselves up when Vinny dropped out of a tree ten feet behind them. Throttle and Modo turned a little bit to look at him, making sure that he wasn't a mountain lion or something then went back to splashing in the river as Vinny did a slow walk around Greasepit's body.

"Report." Throttle said after a second or so as he waded out of the river and made his way to where he'd stripped off his pants and boots. Vinny looked at his bro and quickly reported what he'd found while he'd been outside of their usual territory.

Throttle pulled on his pants and fastened them while listening intently and asked a few questions about the human staying just outside of their territory and would be lying if he hadn't felt slightly alarmed when Vinny said he was fairly certain that she'd been dead with in a week.

After all despite the changes in them these past few years, they still held a stoft spot for females. Though they weren't as naieve about them. They knew that some women did _unspeakable_ things. And to make sure that the one Vinny had found wasn't one of those types- Throttle decided that they would go scope out the female and see if she was one of their enemies or not.


	4. Chapter 4

Uh- sorry it took me so long to get this chapter up. I was re writing 43 chapters of horrible grammer and other things. Now that I have it done, I can submit my story for publication...

It almost makes the fact that my eyes are crossing worth it.

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After desposing of Greasepit the three made their way to the area Vinny had been checking out this morning and hid themselves in the trees, grass and foilage and studied the run down shack like structure.

It was the size of a small garage.

The wood was old and rotting. The structure was sort of leaning off to the left a little bit, boards hung loosely around the door and windows almost blocking them off.

Throttle turned his head for a moment in Vinny's direction and gave him a questioning look. Finding it hard to believe that anyone would be staying in such an old and rickety place when it might fall on them at any moment.

Vinny understood Throttle's misgivings but it didn't change the fact that Vinny had seen a young human female around the place. And while that didn't really mean that she was staying there- He caught sight of something moving inside and motioned with his fingers as Throttle turned his head back and narrowed his eyes as a dark head emerged from within the darkened shed like building.

The person paused for a second to push something through the door.

The three zeroed in on the object and frowned a little bit when they made out a small basket of what looked like clothing as a young girl- Or was she a woman? They couldn't really tell. She was so small and child like in appearance- crawled out of the building wearing a long sleeved green shirt, a pair of cut off shorts that showed her long slender legs, shoes and soft kid leather gloves that covered her little hands.

Her hair was a dark brown that fell around the middle of her back, and hung over her slender shoulders and in her face. She stood up and dusted off her bottom then grabbed the basket and walked towards the river to the side of the shed.

Throttle shifted a little bit as the human knelt down on the bank and started pulling articles of clothing out of the basket and sepertating them before picking up a lavender t-shirt and starting to wash it in the crystaline, swirling waters.

_Well hell-_ Throttle thought darkly. It looked like the human _was_ staying here after all. He looked at Vinny again and this time signed with his hands, _Have you tried making_ _contact? _

Vinny shook his head no. He hadn't thought to make contact due to the fact that there were traps in the area and he didn't want the female to panic and run away if she saw him, and run herself right into the jaws of one of the bear traps that they had scattered about their territory.

He'd watched one woman die right in front of him, he didn't care much to repeat the process with another. Even if she was a total stranger.

Throttle sighed and looked back at the human. He sort of agreed with Vinny's earlier assessment of her. She'd be dead within a week if something wasn't done. But it was against their code to interfere unless it was absolutely unavoidable.

He thought for a moment, weighing the _pros_ and _cons_ of making contact with the female and after a few minutes of serious thought decided that it was in everyone's best interest to pretend like they had never found the human.

He signed for his bros to retreat then hunkered down as close to the ground as he was able and slowly started to crawl back to the path that had brought them to this place and was more than half way there when they heard an ear splitting scream from the human and froze for a moment, their fur standing on end as they heard the distinct sounds of a struggle occurring behind them.

A second later something heavy hit the ground and the female bolted past their hiding place in the tall grass and ran for the trees quickly followed by three men dressed in camo, toting guns.

The three stared after the female and her prusuers with an intense sense of _dread_ as they realized that the little chit was heading into their territory. Throttle looked at Vinny and Modo, a look of annoyance on his face as he motioned with his hand for them to follow the humans then jumped to his feet and took off running.

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_They'd found her! They'd found her! They'd found_- A bullet whizzed by her head and she screamed and ducked down as much as she could without hindering her movement as she ran. She zig zagged between trees, ran through thorn bushes, and hid herself behind a tree so that she catch her breath.

Her heart thudded painfully in her chest, her blood roared in her ears drawning out some of the sound the men made as they looked for her. Occassionally shooting off their fire arms in an attempt to scare her out into the open.

Alice put her hands against her mouth to muffle any sounds that she might accidentally make in fear and flattened her back against the thick tree trunk and waited for the men to move on. It took about ten minutes for them men to move away from her, the entire time she stood there with her hands over her mouth, silently praying that they would leave.

The second she knew they were well out of hearing range of her; she slipped away from her hiding place and ran in the opposite direction. Hoping to get as far away from them and their weapons as humanly possible.

She didn't pay any attention to where she was going even though she was in an unfamiliar area. She ran blindly, driven by her terror. She was making her way through some bushes when she stepped on something and heard a clicking sound. She looked down and caught the silvery metal sheen of sharp jagged teeth a mere moment before the jaws of a bear trap snapped closed around her ankle, the teeth tearing through soft, tender flesh.

She screamed in pain and fell to the ground crying and trying to pull it open.


	5. Chapter 5

They made quick work of the men that had been chasing the woman. Giving her the time needed to escape while they searched the men's pockets for any indication of who they may be and why they were after the girl.

All they found so far was a piece of paper with a name, age, and general description on it. Throttle held the paper up and quickly read it.

The woman's name was Alice Lorin Michelle Buckner. She was twenty. Height- 5/5. Weight- a hundred pounds. He skimmed over the rest but didn't actually read it. Instead he was busy reading the words under it, **Take no prisoners.**

It was an execution order. _Damn_. Throttle thought darkly as he handed it off to Modo whom gave him something that he had found in one of the other men's pockets.

He looked at the object, recognizing it as a disk used as a record of certain information. He scowled at the disk and pocketed it when Vinny made a strangled sound, drawing the attention of his bros.

"What is it?" Modo asked as Vinny pulled his hand out of one his victim's pockets with a little black business card like piece of paper and held it up. Throttle and Modo looked at it and each let out a loud feral sounding growl.

They recognised the black card with the silver skeletal reaper holding a crimson scyth.

They'd found one of those cards among Charlie's remains when they had been collecting bits and pieces of her body for burial three years ago. "Is that what I think it is?" Modo ask in a rough, gravely tone.

Throttle nodded his head and got to his feet. "We need to find that woman."

That shouldn't be too hard since she's probably caught in one of our traps." Vinny said as he dropped the card and wiped his hands on his pants anxiously. A disgusted look on his face as he looked down at the card in hatred.

They were about to leave the small clearing and start tracking the woman down when an agonized scream sounded from somewhere in the direction where the woman had run off too.

"What traps are in...that direction?" Throttle asked as he pointed towards where the scream had come from.

"Bear traps." Both Modo and Vinny said in unison. Throttle made an irritated sound and then asked.

"And how long does it take the average human to bleed to death?" Modo and Vinny both shrugged. In their experience each person was different. A small child could bleed to death in a minute while adults, depending on their height, weight, and state of health could last anywhere from three minutes to an thirty minutes or more. Depending on the extent of the damage.

If the woman had gotten stuck in one of their traps then they needed to be prepared for the fact that the steel toothed jaws may have bitten completely through her bone, severing her foot.

Throttle growled at them and took off running. They were no help at all sometimes.

The three ran through the woods, their long legs eating up the distance from where they had been to the place where they needed to be. Luckily for them the woman was a fighter. Or at the very least hysterical enough to make a lot of noise, making her easier to find.

_Unfortunately_- she was a fighter or at the very least hysterical enough _not_ to notice the physical pain that she was in enough to sit still as they approached her. She took one look at them and tried to pry the trap open, shreding her gloves and cutting her little hands and fingers on the sharp jagged teeth.

She was shaking, her breath coming out in ragged sobs that reminded them far too much of Charlie's final moments.

Throttle got down low to the ground and slowly moved in closer to her making soft crooning sounds in an effort to calm her. His scarlet eyes flickering from her face to her ankle. He could see where the trap had torn through her flesh and other tissues but it hadn't managed to snap her bone yet.

He reached for her leg with one of his hands to distract her so that he could use his tail to wrap around her calf just above where the trap had her so that she wouldn't be able to hurt herself further by jerking away from his hand.

He wrapped his tail around her leg subtly, knowing that her entire focus was on him and his hand. He gave her what he hoped to be a reassuring smile and continued to croon while Vinny and Modo squatted down and observed him as his finger tips made contact with her leg.

She made a distressed sound and jerked her whole body to the left, trying to drag herself free of the trap and escape him completely. It wouldn't work though. Not when he had her leg with his tail. He used his grip on her leg to drag her back toawards him and had to resist the urge to slap his hands over his ears when she let out the loudest, shrillest, most _terrified_ scream he'd ever heard before in his life.

Honestly the sound rivaled anything he'd ever heard before.

The sound echoed in his ears, in his mind, causing his gut to churn like he was about to be ill.

She clawed at the ground then turned and tried attacking him out of desperation. Throttle subdued her easily by grabbing both of her hands and pulling her closer to him and then pinning her hands under one of his legs so that he could pry the trap open.

The second that he had the trap open and pulled her foot from it Vinny walked up and handed him his neck kerchief and told him to use it to wrap her wound. Throttle didn't argue. He merely dug out some salve that they carried on them to stop bleeding and disinfect wounds and popped the lid off of the vial and dipped his fingers in and spread the salve on her wound then carefully wrapped and tied it off.

Once that was done he slowly eased his leg off of her arms and waited to see what would happen next. He stayed perfectly still for one heartbeat, then two and frowned when the woman didn't move to try and get away. In fact she wasn't moving at all.

"I think she's fainted." Modo said as he moved in closer and dropped down to the ground next to her and looked at her real quick before saying, "Yup. She's out cold." Throttle sighed and ran his fingers through his long bangs, pushing them back from his face then reached down and scooped the troublesome chit up.

"Then I guess we have no choice but to take her with us."


	6. Chapter 6

Attention readers-

I'm posting this warning because of some creepy content in this chapter. It's not terribly bad (it doesn't go beyond a little bit of fondling) but it is sort of sickening so you're warned, okay.

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Throttle set the first aid kit aside once he was done tending to Alice's wound then turned his attention back to the female laying so still on his bed. Alice Buckner was not what he had expected to find when Vinny had told him and Modo about a female staying in an old abandoned cabin.

She was so small compared to him and his brothers that she reminded him of a child. Though everything about her screamed _girl, girl, girl_.

Yet everything in his mind screamed _woman, woman, woman. _His scarlet eyes flickered to her face taking in the drawn features.

Alice held potential to be a great beauty. If one looked past the frightfully thin body with small nearly non existant curves. The mass of long hair dark brown hair that was styled in a haphazard messy braid.

She was delicate and fine boned. Had an soft oval shaped face, pale pink lips, her eyes when he had seen them earlier were a lovely dark green with aqua rims around the pupils. He pulled a thin blanket up over her and frowned.

Once again he found himself mentally agreeing with Vinny's earlier assessment.

With Alice being so thin and sickly looking she would definitely_ die_ within a week if she wasn't taken care of.

He sighed and stood up and stepped out of his loft and vaulted over the railing and landed ten feet or so from Modo and Vinny whom were both checking out the disc that they had found earlier. "Find anything useful?" He asked as he walked up to the two.

Both men looked up from their task and gave him a head shake and an frustrated sounding, "_Hell no_."

"The fucking thing is encrypted." Modo all but snarled as he gripped the laptop comuter in his hands so tightly that it was under imminent threat of being shattered to bits. Throttle reached out subconsciously and tapped one of Modo's hands, silently rebuking him while simutaneously reminding him that he had a piece of their much needed equipment in his hands.

Modo loosened his hands and flattened his ears back against his head and sighed and muttered a soft apology then stood up and let Throttle sit down while Vinny asked how Alice was. Throttle snorted. That had to be one of the stupidest questions he'd heard in a good long while.

And he'd been shot in the leg two weeks or so ago. "She almost lost her foot to one of _our_ traps. How do you think she's doing?" Vinny shrugged his shoulders and muttered under his breath.

"Well excuse me for asking."

"_Shut it,_ _Vinny_." Modo growled as Throttle started looking over the encrypted data.

_Jesus-_ He thought as he noted the various data enties. Whoever had encrypted the disk didn't fuck around. Out of the thousands of pieces of data there was only one that would allow them to see what was so important that it had to be encrypted for security reasons in the first place.

He worked on it for twenty minutes or so while Modo and Vinny hovered just behind him but finally- finally, after what seemed like forever he managed to crack the code and several things popped up.

One was a picture of men wearing suits and masks, under the picture was a list of names, what they did for a liveing and...their _perversions_... Throttle's eyes widened in shock as he skimmed over the list ranging from sado masochism to disembowling.

And under those was a list of other names, all of them with pictures with big red X's crossing them out. The X's indicating that the person in the picture was deceased. Throttle stopped the movement of the list when he came to Alice's picture which looked like it had been taken when she was sixteen/seventeen or something.

He frowned and clicked on her picture and sucked in a breath when a video popped up.

Alice was the first thing that he and his bro's saw. Smiling and laughing. She waved at the person taping her and said something. He turned up the volume and sat back and crossed his arms as he watched the screen curiously.

_"Dude, stop following me." Alice said with a look of mock anger on her face despite the fact that her lips were twitching. Someone off screen laughed a second before a distinct male voice asked. _

_"Why should I? Your a fascinating subjet." _

_Alice flipped the guy filming off causing him to gasp before hollering, "M-o-m! Widdle Ali just flipped me off!" _

_Alice tucked a few strands of her dark hair behind her ear and turned around to completely face the person filming and said very clearly, "Bite me." The bent down at the waist and grabbed what looked like a back pack and walked off a little ways as a woman in her forties with shoulder length auburn hair and green eyes walked over and snapped. _

_"Michale! Stop bugging your sister."_

_"Why? It's not like I'm following her into the bushes. Besides you were griping earlier about not having enough pictures of her." _

_A man with short wavy blond hair and blue eyes appeared on screen and snickered before saying, "That's because your sister is a little demon. She thinks having her picture taken somehow steals a part of her soul. She'll probably smash your camera as soon as you turn your back." _

The screen went blank for a moment before something else came up. This time the image was green due to the fact that it must have been night and they could plainly see three men bressed all in black, with masks over their faces and gloves on their hands looming over several bodies. Binding the hands and feet of the people.

The guys recognized the woman and man from before. But didn't know the two kids lying partially on their stomachs next to them. The camera swerved hard to the right and they saw another guy dressed in black sitting almost on top of Alice's body. He reached out and palmed one of her small breasts through her shirt and was kicked in the back of the head as someone hissed.

_"Don't fucking do that. Boss hired us to take them to the gaming grounds not to have our fun with them. Now get off of that girl and get your act together and maybe if you do your job well boss'll let you play with one of the women." _

Vinny reached over Throttle's shoulder and shut the video off causing his brothers to look at him strangely for a moment before he walked off. He didn't want to see what happened next. He could only guess at what happened beyond that point and none of it was good.

In fact, it sickened him. If someone had done such things to Alice then had those men touched Charlie too? He wasn't sure if he wanted to know. The very thought of it made him feel ill.


	7. Chapter 7

Warning- torture mentioned.

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Thottle and Modo watched their brother step outside and looked at each other. Neither one of them wanting the younger male to be alone right now yet knowing that one of them had to watch the rest of the video. They did a quick game of rock-paper and in the end Modo was the one to go after Vinny. Leaving Throttle with the grim task of seeing what happened next.

It was beyond nightmare worthy.

Throttle kept pausing the video so that he could run into the kitchen and wretch. He just couldn't fathom the reasons why someone- anyone would do such _horrible-despicable-_ _horrific_ things to another person. He finished emptying the contents of his stomach and wiped his mouth with the back of one hand then took a shuttering breath and straightened his spine.

He wasn't sure if he wanted to see the rest. He _really_ wasn't.

As it was he'd already had to mute the volume to block out the sounds of screaming. The images of the woman from the camp site, the one whom had been with the people in Alice's group had just had one of her eyes removed with a dull spoon then had some sicko ejaculate in it.

He was wary of what he might see next when he restarted the video. He'd already seen that the woman wasn't alone. There was a fourteen year old girl with light brown hair and blue eyes in the room with her and her tormentors.

He stood there in the kitchen, trying hard to block out the images in his head. Dear god if he watched anymore of the video he'd need therapy more than he already did. And that was really saying something.

His mind was already running away with him, filling in the blanks from the video. He kept asking himself, If I were a psychopath sadist masochist then what would I do to anyone in my grasp?

The answers weren't good. Not good at all. His mind kept coming up with all sort of horrible things that reminded him of his earlier days as a soldier fighting on mars. He couldn't help himself from wondering exactly what had been done to the woman and the girl. Which in turn caused him to think that if such things had happened to those two...then what had happened to Alice when she had been in their hands?

Had she somehow managed to escape them whole? He gripped the edge of the counter so hard that he almost snapped the wood as he mentally shook himself. No. He doubted that it was possible for anyone to go through something like that and walk away intact.

He didn't care if said person was the fucking man of steel, it just wasn't possible. He sighed and waited until he was sure he wasn't going to get sick again then walked across the room and shut off the computer figuring that he'd seen enough to more or less get the gist of how those murderous assholes worked.

He closed the computer then was about to go outside to check on Modo and Vinny when he heard a distressed sound coming from his loft and quickly made his way over to the stairs so that he could check on Alice.

Alice's eyes fluttered open for a moment as she tried shifting herself, unsure if she was trying to get up or simply make herself more comfortable. She couldn't recall where she was or what had happened. She couldn't even feel the wound around her ankle.

in fact she couldn't really feel anything at all. Her mind felt nice and fuzzy, her thought process was slow and sluggish. She felt better than she had in years. It was wonderful really. It wasn't normal and on some level she must have recognized the danger that she maybe was in at that very moment.

But it didn't stop her from laying there on the soft cushy...whatever it was. It smelled like wind and pine. She buried her nose against it and breathed deep so that she could remember the scent later on and didn't even react when someone stepped into the room decked out in black jeans and russet colored fur.


	8. Chapter 8

Throttle stood in the door way of his loft bedroom with a stunned look on his face. Alice lay face down on his bed, _sniffing_ his sheets. _Ah. So pain medicine affects her in that way, huh. _He thought as she turned her head a little bit to look at him as she breathed deeply.

Throttle stiffened a little bit, his fur nearly standing straight up as his heart stuttered in his chest for a second.

_Dear mother of mars_- the woman looked like she was scenting his bed sheets like an animal about to go into heat. He took a small step back, one hand absently reaching out to grasp the side of the door frame, his fingers gripping the wood so hard that his knuckles turned white under his russet fur.

He shuddered as a chill shot down his spine and moved back into the doorway and quietly cleared his throat. Alice twitched and lifted her face from his sheets and looked at him. Her dark green eyes staring at him, unblinking before pushing herself up onto her hands and knees and moving towards the edge of the bed.

Fearing that she might try to get up and run Throttle stepped farther into the room and placed himself firmly at the edge of the bed, between her and the door and crossed his arms and looked ominous. A slight scowl on his face as she inched closer.

He lifted one leg and lightly kicked at the edge of the mattress to stop her from moving any closer, but she didn't heed his subtle warning. She did however get close enough to grab his hips, startling him to the point where his fur bristled and stood straight up as she buried her face against his abdomen and inhaled deeply and muttered against his fur. "It's you." Throttle's tail twitched in agitation.

The words sounding suspisciously like an accusation to his ears. _He's what?_ He wondered as he slowly unfolded his arms and placed his hands firmly on her slender shoulders and was about to push her back onto the bed so that he could re tuck her in when she let go of his hips and grasped his wrists in her small hands.

He froze again, unsure of what else to do and nearly jumped out of his skin as she lifted one of his hands off of her shoulders and lifted it to her mouth and before he realized what she was doing, she licked his forefinger and his scarlet eyes widened behind his shades as he supressed the urge to jerk his hand from her grasp.

"Okay, so pain meds _really_ mess with your head. Good to know for future reference." He said in a slightly strained tone as he tried to pull his hand from her grasp. She made a soft sound and licked his finger tip again and he did the only thing that he could think of to stop her before things got really really weird and roughly shoved her back on the bed and quickly moved away.

He got all the way over to the door before he bothered to look back at her and see if she was staying put and was more than a little bit relieved to find her laying on her back on the bed, still awake, and maybe a little bit upset.

But at least she wasn't licking him anymore. And that made him deliriously happy. Truly it did.

Yet it didn't explain the sudden feeling of_ panic_ that seized him before he jumped the railing and hit the floor below running.

(*****************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************)

Modo and Vinny were on their way back into the house when Throttle come tearing out the front door like his fur was on fire. The two stopped walking and watched in morbid curiosity as their leader ran down the steps, and out into the woods as fast as his legs would carry him... If not faster.

"I wonder what that's all about." Vinny said as he cocked his head to the side a little bit. Modo made a humming sound.

"I dunno but I sort of wish he moved that fast every time something was bothering him."

"So... you're still a little pissed about him letting you get shot."

"Not really." Modo lied as he crossed his arms over his chest. Vinny hummed.

"I don't believe you."

"Probably just as well. The bullet that hit me really,_ really_ hurt."

"Should we go-" Vinny asked pointing in the direction where Throttle had vanished. Modo didn't even blink before answering.

"Nah. Whatever it is bothering him is his headache. Lets go inside and grab a beer and make fun of him until he comes back."

"Alright."

(*****************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************)

Throttle stopped running and stood under a large oak tree. His heart slamming against his ribs as he broke out into a cold sweat as if he were ill. _Fuck, fuck, fuck-_ This couldn't be happening. He thought as he lifted both of his hands to the top of his head and gripped his thick brown hair and gave it a painful tug before letting it go.

He'd been scented. By a human.

Hysteria bubbled up in his chest, threatening to overwhelm and consume him. Oh god why? Why did this happen now of all times? He was busy being a feral mouse. _He couldn't_ _afford to be tamed!_

Certainly not by that sickly looking creature in his loft. _Fuck, fuck, fuck-_ God why him? _Why? _He didn't want to be close to another human female. He didn't want to get to know her. To learn her personality, to share her hopes and dreams and pieces of her soul. He didn't want to be close to another female until he could finally lay the ghost of his former friend Charlie to rest.


	9. Chapter 9

Throttle wasn't done freaking out two hours later- not by a long shot. I mean who in their right mind wouldn't freak out. He'd always thought that Carbine would be the only female to scent him. But after Charlie had been killed he'd stopped caring about the fact that he was denying himself the chance to settle down, mate, and sire offspring with a potential mate.

And since he no longer knew what Carbine was doing or if she was even alive he had dedicated himself to quietly mourning her as if she were dead while working to avenge Charlie. He had no illusions about how fucked up he was.

No illusions that he'd be able to live his life peacefully and happily after his work was done. He knew that by the time everything was said and done, his mind would be consumed by madness and that simply wasn't the type of thing that he wanted to expose a female too.

Yet here fate was, years later- mocking him with the promise of everything that he could or would ever _want_ and _need_. And he just knew that the second he bothered to reach for it, fate would rip it away just like everything else.

Honestly he was so _pissed_ about this that he could cheerfully shoot something.

But since there were no moving targets, or animals around for him to shoot he had to make due with screaming at the top of his lungs and punching the trees until his knuckles were bruised and bloody, and it felt like his bones had been pulverised by the furious pounding of his flesh against the rough trunks.

Finally he tired himself out and stopped everything so that he could sit down.

He sank to the ground under the mangled tree that he'd been hitting and just sat there breathing for a moment before lifting his hands up in front of his eyes and studying the discolored, torn and bleeding skin under his russet colored fur.

long brown bangs slipping down in his eyes temporarily obscuring his vision a little bit. He sighed and ran his fingers through his hair noting the abnormal length and knew that it was time for him to get a haircut.

He's changed so much in the past three years that he scarcely managed to keep up with the changes. His hair had grown out to near mid back lenth, he'd blackmailed Karbuckle into making some new eye implants so that he could see with or without his shades. He'd gained weight, at least sixty pounds of it and had gotten more muscular.

Modo and Vinny had changed too.

Both males had gained a little more bulk.

Modo had blackmailed Limberger out of a fortune in cash that they had used to buy the Last Change Garage so that no one else could have it, and had also gotten a new eye from the deal. But even so he still tended to use the eye patch that he'd worn before because he felt uncomfortable without it.

Vinny had grown three inches and let his hair grown out a little bit, he'd gained twenty pounds of pure muscle and had shelved his once annoying and childish personality and replaced it with the personality of a predator. He had learned tactics, several new fighting techniques that killed instantly, and rarely smiled or laughed even on the days when no one came skulking around.

He spoke more softly, read books on war, plagues, and so many other things that Throttle's head hurt just thinking about them.

Yet...his mind shifted back to Alice and his current situation. He wasn't sure what to do. Martian protocol was different from human protocol. When a martian male wass scented by a female then they entered into a courtship state so that they could get to know one another.

The male would hunt and kill the female's food, leave her gifts like precious flowers and rare treasures.

Then if the female accepted the gifts the male would build a nest and then would engage in a playful game where he would have to chase the female down and make her submit to him before he could mate with her.

He made a low rumbling sound in the back of his throat. If he mated with Alice as she was now, he'd break her apart. She was too thin. Too fragile. Too easily broken into pieces.

"God I can't do this..."


	10. Chapter 10

But he didn't really have a choice. Being scented by a female wasn't something that could easily be ignored. So after his freak out, Throttle picked himself up and headed back to the cabin while trying to think of how to avoid giving in to his instincts.

Of course he was still coming up blank by the time he reached the front door. Which almost sent him into another panic..._almost_. He opened the door and slipped inside and found Modo and Vinny sprawled on the couch staring blankly at the wall in front of them, drinking a couple of beers. The two paused what they were doing to turn their heads and look at him as he pushed the door closed and tried to walk by them without piquing their curiosity.

But to no avail. Vinny asked, "You okay bro?" After apparently noticing that Throttle was still a mite upset about being scented. Throttle trapped his tail against his thigh with one of his hands to keep it from twitching in irritation and looked at Vinny with vivid scarlet eyes.

"I'm. Fine." He lied through clenched teeth. Both of his brothers looked at him with 'uh-huh' looks on their faces and didn't say anything more, figuring that Throttle would talk to them once he felt like it.

Later that day when the sun was going down Throttle found himself standing in the door way to his room for what must have been the tenth time in the past three hours. He didn't understand it, but he could more or less guess at what was going on with him and the internal battle was already taking a toll on him.

_Damned instincts_. He inwardly swore as he stared at the woman sleeping on his bed with a perturbed look on his face. Alice's presence was already getting under his skin. It was damned annoying to him, but at the moment there was nothing that he could do about it.

Alice was wounded and his honor wouldn't let him just walk away and leave her to whatever fate. No matter how much he may want too at the moment. Still there was some part of him that couldn't help drinking in Alice's appearance even in her present condition.

There was no doubt in his mind that once she gained a little weight, she'd be a stone cold fox. Her features were simply too fine for her not to be. His tail twitched a little bit and he sighed and then turned and left, deciding that it was best for now to try and put some distance between himself and Alice.

Over the course of the next three days, the three men kept Alice sedated to allow her wound some time to heal before they would start lowerring the dose of the pain meds and gradually bring her back to consciousness. And in that time, they had given her liquids and vitimins and protiens to keep her healthy while making sure that she didn't get dehydrated.

Every hour or so one of them (Throttle) would take her to the bathroom and rouse her just enough to use the bathroom if she needed to go and then at the end of the day the man even took the time out to bathe her and dress her in one of his old shirts. Then returned her to his bed to resume her rest where he checked her wound and re dressed it before leaving the room and the woman, alone.

Throttle managed to do this for the past three days without incident. Then on the fourth day when he made his way up to the bedroom to check on Alice, he felt a peculiar prickling sensation along his nape.

He rubbed the area and then shook his head. Trying to push the pesky sensation aside as he started through the door to his bedroom and came to a total halt when he saw Alice sitting up on his bed, wide awake, her tousled dark hair partially obscuring her face. She looked at him for a brief second and he sucked in a breath and tensed, his ears flattening back against his head as he waited for her to shout the house down.

Instead she just sort of looked him over for a moment then snorted and muttered. "A giant mutant mouse...an _odd_ thing for my mind to conjure up." Throttle bristled a little bit. It wasn't the reaction he'd been expecting from her. But he supposed it was something that he could work with.

Still it didn't stop him from growling, "Oh a waif. Awesome. I've been _dying_ to chew on something-" He stepped into the room and stopped at the edge of the bed, hoping to intimidate her into being too scared to take part in a courtship of any kind.

But instead of shrinking back from him, Alice chose to shock, surprise, and amuse him by quickly snapping back at him. "Yes come closer. I swear I'll bite you back."

Throttle's mind sputtered to a total stop for a second and his heart jumped in his chest as he stared at Alice in what could only be a look of comical shock as he mentally imagined her sinking her sharp little pearl colored teeth into his shoulder. _Oh baby._


	11. Chapter 11

Later that morning Throttle found himself admiring Alice's spunk. Here the girl was, wounded, in the company of three alien mice (all male) and she was taking it all in stride without the slightest bit of fear.

Well okay, maybe it wasn't exactly spunk. In fact it sort of straddled the line of stupid and lacking common sense. God knew that he'd be damn near climbing the walls if he were in her place right this moment.

He watched her eye the food that Modo had just placed in front of her with a slight look of suspicion and felt his lips curve up at the corners a little bit as he took a sip of his fifth cup of coffee.

_Ah. Maybe she isn't so lacking in common sense after all._ He mused as she politely asked Modo to eat three big bites to make sure that the food hadn't been tampered with.

Modo had at first looked at her like she was deranged, but had seemed to grasp the why's of her actions easily enough and took a fork and did as she asked then upon finishing set his fork down and crossed his arms over his chest and gave her an 'I dare you to refuse' sort of look that prompted her to pick up her fork and take a few experimental bites before putting her fork down again and quietly pushing the plate away.

Modo looked at Throttle, a peculiar expression on his face and Throttle could sense that his older brother was worried about the woman. A few bites of food here and there was _not_ enough to keep one alive for long.

Especially when Alice was already so very frightfully thin.

Throttle remained quiet for a moment or so and used the back of his hand to push her plate back towards her. Earning a puzzled frown from her before he growled. "For gods sake woman, _eat_ something before you drive us mad."

Alice gave him a narrow eyed look and asked in a curious tone. "Why?"

"Because you look like a good wind could carry you off." Modo said then jerked and hissed as he slowly turned his head to look at his younger brother. Had he just kicked him under the table?

"Because you don't look like you're very healthy-" Throttle said as he flexed his toes in his shoe to make sure that he hadn't broken them on Modo's shin when he had kicked him. "So please, eat something."

"I'm not hungry."

"You're practically skin and bones. Eat it anyways." Throttle said. Alice glared at him defiantly and he sighed.

"Do I have to feed you myself?" He asked as he pushed his coffee cup aside and shifted his chair around a little bit as his tail snaked out and wrapped around one of the legs of her chair and pulled it around the corner of the table.

Startling the woman if the sudden look of surprise was any indication at all as he dragged her chair into place in front of him and picked up her fork and the plate and then speared some eggs and held the fork out to her.

She recovered faster than he expected her too and thinned her lips. God she was adorable when she was being stubborn. Throttle thought before ruthlessly pushing the insane thought aside as he sort of wiggled the fork, hoping to entice her to eat.

It didn't work. But at least he can say that he _tried_ before he lost his patience and grabbed her and used his finger tips to squeeze her jaw until she opened her mouth. At which point he shoved the fork and the food into her mouth before removing his hand.

"There now-" Throttle aid as he pulled the fork out of her mouth and speared a few more things on it and caught Modo gaping at him in horror from across the table. Throttle scowled at him for a moment as he continued to speak.

"That wasn't so bad. Now, choke down a few more bites and then you can-" Throttle turned back to Alice and paused for a second at the furious expression on her face a second before her hand shot out and her fist caught him right in the nose, knocking him back out of his chair. Modo turned his head to gape at her and made a strangled sound as Throttle rubbed his sore nose and looked at Alice over the top of his hand and frowned.

Well if that wasn't a huge 'go fuck yourself' he didn't know what was. It was obvious to him that Alice was no weak simpering miss. In fact he felt more than a little bit of pride in her for knocking him on his ass. "Alright. You don't want to eat. I get it-" Throttle said as he picked himself up off of the floor. Making her think that she'd defeated him with that puny little punch when all he was doing was biding his time till lunch.

Then the battle of wills would begin anew.


	12. Chapter 12

Two weeks later-

Alice lay on the couch in front of a roaring fire, her eyes closed, her breathing shallow with sleep. Throttle walked by and paused, taking a moment or so to observe how relaxed and peaceful she looked while napping then shook his head and walked on.

The past two weeks had been hell on him and his brothers due to Alice's presence in their home.

It wasn't that she was a bad guest or anything. She was fairly polite when she wasn't being man handled and pushed around by him or his bros. No the problem was that Throttle was liking her and her spunk more and more and didn't seem to know what the hell to do about it.

And on top of that, his brothers were starting to observe his behavior patterns more closely.

And while that wasn't exactly a bad thing, he didn't want them knowing that he'd been scented by Alice. At least not until he was sure of what he was going to do with her. He found Vinny in the kitchen washing dishes like he'd thought he would and came up behind his younger brother and grabeed a cup from one of the cabinets over the sink.

"What is she doing?" Vinny asked suddenly, startling Throttle slightly as he made his way over to the fridge to get a glass of milk and make a sandwhich.

"Sleeping at the moment."

"Roasty toasty by the fire."

"Yeah. Seems Ali-girl is like a cat or something. She loves being abnormally warm." Throttle said as he grabbed some ham and turkey meat and then some cheese and mayo from the fridge then set everythign on the counter and closed it.

Vinny was quiet for a moment as Throttle grabbed the bread and set it on the counter then asked, "So what's going on between you?" Throttle stiffened where he stood and froze with his hand half way inside the bread bag.

"Excuse me."

"You and Alice, Throttle. What's going on between you?" Vinny asked again. Throttle was careful to keep his expression blank as his mind hissed, _What the fuck makes you think that's any of your business? _

He must have said what he was thinking without realizing it because one second Vinny had his back to him and the next he was turned around and staring at him with a slightly pissed look on his face. _Uh-oh. _"None of my business. What happens between you and Alice is none of my business. Throttle bro, do you know how much of a hypocrite you sound after all the shit you and Modo put me through when I was-" He stopped talking, a pained expression crossing his face as he thought about Charely.

"Yeah. I know. But Vinny I need you to understand that whatever is with me and Alice, I'm flying blind here. I don't know what I'm doing. Or if anything will come of it-" Which was the wrong choice of words to use around Vinny because Throttle saw a strange look pass his face a second before he said.

"You were scented."

_"No!"_ Throttle snapped at him. Vinny gave Throttle a tight lipped smile and moved away from the sink, looking like he was heading towards the couch. Throttle reacted purely out of instinct and flew across the room and blocked Vinny's path a feral look on his face that stopped Vinny cold in his tracks. His fur bristled, his tail whipped around behind him in agitation and he growled at his brother in his _you-don't-want-to-fuck-with-me_ tone, "Stay away from her."

Vinny was very quiet and still for a moment, his scarlet eyes studying Throttle. If he hadn't been sure before, he was now. Throttle had definately been scented by Alice. His brother's very posture told him that if he made one move towards the little human that he'd rip his head off in retaliation. And there was no way around it. Instinct was instinct even if the person at it's mercy didn't know what to do about it.

So for now he would have to clue Modo in on what was going on and then sit back and observe Throttle as he tried to woo Alice and _hope_ that his brother didn't fail. Because as stupid as it was to keep the girl with them when they had a vendetta, they needed something or someone to keep them firmly grounded. To keep them from going totally insane.

And there wasn't a better person to do it then Throttle's potential mate. He just hoped that little Ali-girl was up to the task.


	13. Chapter 13

Vinny supposed that he'd find out soon enough.

And was only mildly surprised when later that night while Ali-girl was asleep, they were attacked. They wasted no time in gearing up and leaving the cabin to track down the intruders and returned home two hours after they left to find Ali-girl wide awake and sitting in the kitchen with a mug of chocolate milk as the three of them came limping in covered in various wounds.

Throttle had the worst of the wounds, though Vinny thought it was a damn close call between him and Modo. Throttle had taken a two bullets, one in the stomach and another in his shoulder. And he was bleeding like a stuck pig all over the damned place which worried both of his brothers.

Modo had a few shallow wounds in his stomach and back and one of his upper arms and while he was bleeding, he wasn't bleeding as severely as Throttle was.

Vinny- didn't have a damned scratch on him. He had some bruises, but no scratches meaning that it was now his job to patch up his brothers. However Alice beat him to it when she took one look at them and ran out of the room and dug out the first aid kit and came back into the living room, and handed him what he would need to take care of Modo while trying to stop the blood flow from Throttle's shoulder wound.

While using one hand to go through the stuff in the kit and could the clotting powder and used some on both of Throttle's wounds after dousing them in rubbing alchohol, causing the russet colored mouse to jump all over the place and growl at her. Not caring one little bit for the pain that was starting to cloud his senses.

She reached out absently and picked up the gun magazine that had been laying on the table before they had left and smacked Throttle on the tip of the nose with it, earning an enraged look from the normally frosty cool mouse before she tossed it aside and grabbed the gauze bandaged and started to wrap his wounds.

She finished with the leg wound and started to do shothing about the shoulder one but he gripped her wrist and stopped her. "Don't. It'll just get in the way later." She looked at him strangely and subtly reached for the magazine again. But Throttle caught the movement and made an odd sort of hissing sound as he snagged her other wrist and growled at her warningly.

"You do _not_ want to smack me with that damned magazine again. I'm not a dog. And I won't put up with it. Got it?" Alice nodded her head slowly, looking very much like she would like nothing more than to scamper from the room and hide.

Throttle let go of her and started to lean back in his seat when Vinny caught an evil smirk curving Alice's lips a split second before she stepped back and straightened her spine and in a move that was hard even for him to read- kicked Throttle in the chest and knocked him and his chair over.

The man gave a startled yelp and hit the floor with a dull thud and sat there wondering what happened when Alice walked around his chair and dropped down to a squat close to his head and hissed.

"I got it, now you need to get something... Don't_ touch_ me without permission again-" Throttle opened his mouth to snap at her. He'd touch her _whenever_ and _wherever_ he damn well wanted- But Alice reached out and grabbed him by the throat and pressed down enough to cut off his oxygen before he could do more than blink at her.

"And I'm finishing my patch job on your shoulder- Which now includes stitches and no pain meds. Yay. Now pick yourself up off of the floor and suck it up before I decide that you don't _need_ that arm of yours and rip it off and beat you with it!" Throttle glared at her from narrowed eyes for a moment, his tail twitching in irritation as his fingers twitched.

His palms itched and before he could stop himself he reached out and hooked a hand around Alice's nape and pulled her down so that their faces were a mere hairsbreath apart, his breath fanning her face. And watched in morbid fascination as her eyes widened and her face flushed a fetching pink as he said in a breathless tone that caught even _him_ off guard.

"Back off honey or I'll make you regret that you let me stay conscious." He saw her shiver as his lips brushed against hers and let out a loud rumbling purr, startling her before he let her go.

Alice scrambled back away from him so quickly that she almost tripped over her own feet in her effort to run from him and got as far as the other end of the table before Throttle picked himself up off of the floor and made another purring sound and bit back a laugh when she hissed at him like a cat and ran from the room without another word.

Both Vinny and Modo both looked at him a second before the eldest of the three growled, _"Motherfucker-"_


	14. Chapter 14

_"Motherfucker-" _Modo snarled as he came up out of his chair so fast that the movement startled Vinny and sent him scrambling out of the way a second before Modo grabbed Throttle by his shirt and yanked him up off of the floor and growled. "What the fuck was that?"

"What the fuck was what?" Throttle asked innocently, pretending that everything Modo and Vinny had just seen and heard hadn't happened at all. Modo looked like he was about to gut him- A rare sight considering that the smokey grey furred mouse was the most even tempered out of them.

Vinny heard Alice moving around upstairs and quickly and quietly got to his feet and made his way to the stairs and took them two at a time and found the female sitting on the floor next to the railing, her eyes focused on the two below. A small frown marring her features as he dropped down beside her, startling her a little bit.

She shot him a dirty look and he smiled pleasantly knowing that it would irk her and was mildly surprised when she whispered. "Why are they fighting?"

He was quiet for a second, doubting that he should say anything about the reasons why since she was Throttle's potential mate.

But then the whole potential mate shit got him to thinking that maybe she should know why they were fighting among other things since he doubted that she knew or understood what it meant for one of their kind to be scented by a femlae of a different race.

If she knew what she was in for...god who was he kidding? She'd run like hell away from them and Throttle would follow suit, dragging him and Modo along with him because that's what his instincts would tell him to do. So maybe it was a bit understandable why Throttle hadn't said anything to her. But he felt that she should at least be told _why_ Throttle had all but kissed her earlier.

"They're fighting because something has changed our group dynamics." Alice looked away as Modo growled and shoved Throttle away from him and started pacing and ranting inbetween strange sounding oaths.

(********************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************)

"You can't fucking do this Throttle! She's a _human_- You do of course remember what happened to the last human female involved with us right?" Modo growled as he paced back and forth in front of his younger brother.

Throttle inwardly flinched at the mention of Charley and her beyond brutal death but other wise didn't react to Modo's anger. He knew it was crazy to get involved with Alice but he didn't really have a choice in it. He'd been scented for fuck's sake.

It wasn't like he could shrug off his instincts or anything. This wasn't some little deal that he could very easily walk away from. This was a big, big, big deal and there was no walking away until the courtship ended. And even then it would be difficult because he would have invested months, perhaps even years of emotion into the courtship.

Still...he knew Modo's anger was valid. After all, like Charley- Alice was so much smaller and fragile compared to them. If their enemys found out about her before they could get rid of them...

He shuddered and looked towards the stairs, just barely making out Alice's form on the floor next to Vinny as he felt a painful twinge in his chest as his mind roared, _I'll_ _never let that happen! _It was true, he'd rather die before letting another innocent woman suffer such a fate. And with their enemies after Alice- He'd have no shortage of chances to rid the world of such evil.

"Of course I remember-" Throttle said softly, Modo stopped his pacing and looked at him, his expression unreadable as Throttle continued speaking. "There is no way that I could ever forget. I see Charely every time I close my eyes. I hear her crying and screaming everytime soemone attacks us. But Alice is different. She isn't Charley. She'd be dead now if she was."

"Then tell me why your throwing caution to the wind and trying to ensnare that female?" Modo asked, a little more calmly. Throttle flushed under his fur and felt a little bit embarrassed about telling his brother that he'd been scented by the girl. He was pretty sure that once Modo knew he'd do one of two things.

1) Never let him live it down.

And 2) Get even more pissed.

Modo turned completely to face him and crossed his arms over his chest and waited for Throttle to reply. His expression dark as he slowly started to tap his foot on the floor impatiently. "I'm waiting boy." He growled as Throttle rubbed the back of his neck nervously and glanced back at Alice before looking back at Modo and subtely moving closer to his brother and whispering in his ear.

Modo's fur stood on end for a moment before he busted out laughing. Hysterically. Throttle stepped back from him looking a little offended and was about to snap at him when Modo lashed out with his tail and sent him flying a good ten feet before snarling something particularly vicious at him in martian and stomping towards the door.

Both Alice and Vinny gaped at the scene from their hiding place as the grey mouse slammed the front door behind him. Ali-girl started to get up but Vinny stoped her by snagging her wrist and pulling her back down and into his lap and wrapped an arm around her slender shoulders.

She growled at him and squirmed and tried to get loose causing him to put her in a loose head lock as he watched Throttle pick himself up off of the floor with a winch and a groan and muttered, "What is it with people knocking me on my ass lately?"


	15. Chapter 15

_Un-fucking-believable._ Modo thought as he stormed through the dense under brush around the cabin. His dumbass brother had gotten himself scented- by a human female no less! And while they were in the middle of fighting their own personal war!

He stopped walking and flexed the fingers on both of his hands. Opening then closing them as if he wanted to throttle Throttle with them. If he had been in the house at the moment watching his brother, he just might have done that. God knew it was a tempting thought. Impulse. _Whatever_- it was still tempting.

_Jesus._ Modo thought as his temper subsided a little bit and let everything sink in completely. He groaned and lifted his hands to bury his face in them and wondered; What were they going to do? They couldn't let another woman get involved with them, not after the way Charlie had died.

Yet the instincts of their race ran deep and letting the woman leave in the middle of a courtship could have disastrous consequences for Throttle. He might become sick. Fall into a sort of grieving period where he may just lay down on his bed and never move from it again.

It all depended on how deeply he was starting to feel the urge to bond with little Ali-girl.

If he felt the need to bond with her so deeply that it killed him... "_Fuck._ What are we supposed to do?" Modo muttered as he tipped his head back and searched the dark velvet of the sky above his head. Almost hoping that the answer to his question was somewhere in the stars and clouds.

(**************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************)

The second Vinny realised that he'd put Alice in a headlock, his life flashed before his eyes. Because any second now Throttle was going to come up the stairs to check on her and he was too scared to move to even let her go.

On one hand if he did, she'd nail him. Then on the other hand...well he was dead anyways.

Throttle might not kill him for certain things when it came to the woman. But he definately would for laying his hands on her. Because if his hands were on her then Throttle would be able to smell him on her and _that_ would drive his territorial and protective instincts through the roof.

Sure enough it was right about then that he saw Throttle turn towards the stairs and his heart nearly petered out in his chest. _Oh god, oh god, oh god-_ Where was a chest or something to stuff Ali-girl in when he needed one? _Oh god, oh god, oh god-_ He mentally chanted as Throttle walked over to the steps, his eyes narrowing behind his shades as he made out Vinny's form sitting there on the floor from between the wood of the railing.

"Vinny-" Throttle called out suddenly causing the white furred mouse to squeak a little bit and attempt to get up with Alice still in his grasp so that he could run.

"Where's Alice? Is she in the bedroom?" Throttle asked as he took the second step up. Vinny was about to answer him when the damned female bit him while kicking out with one of her legs and nailing him in the shin hard enough to make him yelp and drop her.

She hit the floor with a dull thud and came up swinging and shrieking her displeasure which in turn made Throttle run up the steps to see what was going on.

He reached the top step expecting something horrible and could only stare and gape at Alice on Vinny's back alternating between ripping out some of his fur, pulling on his antenna and smacking him in the back of the head as she growled obscenities at him while Vinny tried to pry her off of his back without hurting her.

_What the hell? _


	16. Chapter 16

_What the hell?_ Throttle wondered as Alice finally let out an outraged scream and opened her mouth- Throttle visibly tensed, knowing what was obviously coming next and watched in shock and disbelief as she actually sank her sharp little teeth into the top of Vinny's ear.

Causing him to scream in pain and reach up and hook his hand around her nape.

His instincts kicking into overdrive he quickly ran over to where Vinny was and grabbed his hand and none too gently pried it from Alices neck knowing that if he didn't Vinny might break it in an effort to get her to release him. "Get her off! Get her off!"

"Give me a second!" Throttle snapped as he made sure to pin Vinny's hands with his tail and then reached up and pinched Alice's nose closed and waited until she opened her mouth to take a breath, before slipping his hands under her arm pits and jerked her off of Vinny's back.

Then released his brother and fell back against the wall with the girl clutched in his arms. Both of them panting.

Throttle did a quick check, running his gloved hands along Alice's slender arms to check for any injuries while wrapping his tail around her middle and hugging her tightly for a moment once he was assured that she was okay and glared at Vinny for a moment before demanding.

"What the fuck were you doing going for her neck like that?"

"I was trying to get her off of me!" Vinny growled as he shook his head and lifted a hand to rub at his wounded ear.

Alice let out a low menacing growl of her own and tried to take a step forward but Throttle held her in place. Not wanting her to get between himself and Vinny if they were to get into a fight.

"Really?" He snarled. "It looked more like you were trying to break her neck!"

"Dammit bro, I wouldn't hurt a female!" Vinny snarled back. Feeling more than a little bit hurt and angry that his brother would think him capable of doing something as low as inflicting physical pain on a woman. Even if she was a shrieking, snarling, fanged hell monster like little Ali-girl was. "Even one as mean spirited as her." Vinny said as he gave Alice a dark look.

Throttle opened his mouth to say something else when Alice interrupted him and hissed. "I would be nicer if you all would stop provoking me!"

"What? I didn't do anything to provok you into ripping out my fur and biting me!" Vinny nearly shouted in outrage. Alice growled again and made another attempt to step closer to Vinny. Undoubtedly wanting to finish what she had started earlier and rip out the rest of his fur and finish biting off his ear. However with Thorttle still holding onto her, she simply didn't get far.

Though he _was_ suddenly interested in knowing what Vinny had done to provok her into an act of such violence.

"Didn't do anything. You didn't do anything! You were choking me!"

Vinny and Throttle both went eerily still and looked at her wide eyed. "You had your arm around my neck when you stood up idiot! And my feet weren't touching the floor. I couldn't _breathe_!" Alice practically shrieked as she made to lunge at Vinny who quickly backed away and nearly went over the railing behind him.

Throttle sighed and quickly scooped Alice up, causing her to let out a startled yelp and faster than she could react, deposited her into his bedroom then closed the door and locked it from the outside so that she couldn't escape then turned on Vinny who eyed him with a mixture of wariness and dread.

"You and me. Outside. _Now_." Throttle said from between clenched teeth, his tail flicking behind him angrily. Vinny didn't respond, he knew what was coming. It was their system after all. It was also one of the few martian traditions that they had kept alive after severing their ties to Mars.

Basically it went like this. If any one of them ever stepped out of line and attempted to do harm to an innocent, even if it was by accident, then they were punished for it by their commander in either a beating or a military type of hazing that could kill them if it was carried too far.

It all depended on what they had done and how much pain they had inflicted.

Which was why Vinny was worried though he hadn't really done more than really, _really_ scare Alice- He doubted that Throttle would see the matter as an open and closed case since she was his potential mate. No, with a scented male you could never count something done to a female as an open and closed case. Not even when there damage was minimal.

Vinny gulped and looked like he was going to be sick. He just knew that whatever Throttle decided to do to him would be _unpleasant_. "Give me ten minutes to find Modo. Then we'll get on with it." Vinny said weakly, hoping that he would even be able to find the grey furred giant after the way he had stormed out a few minutes ago.

Throttle nodded his head, figuring that Vinny had every right to ask that he be given the chance to find Modo since he was the only one who would be able to stop him if he took Vinny's punishment too far.

"Ten minutes." He said in a calm tone despite his inner turmoil. Vinny nodded his head and vaulted over the railing and landed lightly on the balls of his feet on the floor below before running for the door as fast as he could.


	17. Chapter 17

The second Vinny was out the door, Throttle turned his attention to seeing to Alice. Unlocking his bedroom door he pushed it open and peeked in to see her huddled on the floor of his bedroom with her face in her hands, her small body shaking.

_Damn you Vinny. _He thought darkly as he pushed the door open just a bit more so that he could step inside.

She didn't seem to notice his presence at first. At least not until he quietly dropped to his knees in front of her and gently slipped a hand under hands and made contact with her her chin. She jerked and lifted her head so that he could look her in the eyes and he sucked in a ragged breath when he saw that she was crying.

"Oh Ali..." He breathed and then plucked the crying girl up off of the floor and placed her in his lap and nuzzled her face, trying in his own way to comfort her without speaking. After all what could he say?

_I'm sorry my little brother is an idiot. I'm sorry that he choked you. _

"Please don't cry-" He rasped softly as his tongue snaked out of his mouth and licked at one of the remaining tears that had escaped the corner of her eye. "It kills me when you cry." He said as he felt a tremor run through her slender body.

She made a small sound in the back of her throat and set her small hands on his shoulders and gripped his fur as she pressed her body closer to him.

Her body going from fearful shaking to subtle trembling as he wrapped his arms around her and breathed the sweet scent of her skin and hair. Some part of his mind not recognizing that he was dangerously close to the edge here. His long suppressed instinct suddenly roaring to life.

After seeing her in such an emotional state; he _needed_ this.

Needed to feel her body against his own. Needed to feel the frantic thudding of her heart in her chest. Needed to feel her breathing as he tangled the fingers of one hand in her hair and pulled her head back so that he could kiss her.

She had an uncertain/wary look on her face as she looked up at him. Almost like she expected him to hurt her too. His chest clenched painfully at the sight even as he leaned in and lightly brushed his mouth against her own, trying to convey to her that he intended no harm through the feather light caress.

Alice gasped in shock, her mind reeling as he siezed the opening she gave him to kiss her more thoroughly.

She clutched at the fur on his shoulders causing him to growl low in his throat as his tongue slipped into her mouth and explored the moist cavern. Sucking the breath from her lungs along with the strength to struggle from her limbs.

He pulled back after a moment or so and ran a thumb along her swollen lips as he untangled his fingers from her hair and then carefully removed her hands from his shoulders.

As much as he would like to stay here in his room and get lost in this fiery woman's charms, he still had to do something to punish Vinny. But first he needed to make one thing clear to Alice. "I'm not going to apologize for doing that. So if you're expecting an apology, don't hold your breath."

Ali looked at him with a rattled expression on her face as she lifted a hand to her mouth as he lifted her up off of his lap and set her back down where she had been before, then got up. "I've got something to take care of now- Be a good girl and stay here since I don't want you upset any further."

Alice blinked at him, her mind obviously not working on all cylinders just yet due to the kiss and he smiled slightly and turned to leave when he heard her voice ask in a tone barely above a whisper, "W-Why did you just- I-I don't understand."

He turned his head to look at her over his shoulder and gave her a grim smile. "It's best you don't think about it, love. It'd only make you crazy."

_Like me. _He thought as he stepped out of the bedroom and gently closed the door behind him, and relocked it to keep her from getting out and getting into mischief like she was so prone to do when he wasn't looking.

(**************************************************************************************************************************************)

Alice sat on the hard wood floor of the bedroom, staring at the door. Wondering why Throttle had kissed her when he had seemed to hate her ever since he and his brothers had brought her into their home. And what had he meant by, "It's best if she didn't think about it."

What part about _not_ thinking about that kiss was for the best? She didn't understand. Sighing she looked away from the door and glanced around the room as if it held the answers she was seeking. She didn't find anything.

No obvious traces or clues about _anything_. And she couldn't help but be troubled by this.


	18. Chapter 18

Modo was a good fifty something feet from the house. Trying to calm himself enough to get past his anger so that he could go back inside, his mind rationalizing that it wasn't Throttle's fault that he had been scented.

Just like it wasn't Ali-girl's fault for scenting him when she didn't know _or_ understand their alien customs.

After all it wasn't like they had bothered to fill her in on what she shouldn't do after bringing her home with them. In fact he could honestly say that having one of them scented had been the furthest thing from their minds. They just hadn't wanted the little human to bleed to death for Christs sake!

And now look at the mess they were in...

Charlie was dead. Throttle had been scented. And in the middle of all the chaos; all hell was about to break loose. He could just _feel_ it in his bones.

He sighed and leaned back against the tree he was hanging out in and watched the house with one glowing red eye while focusing on his breathing.

Inhale. Exhale. Inhale. Exhale.

He had done this for the past twenty minutes or so since storming out and so far he had to say- he needed a better outlet for his anger. Cause he could still feel it churning in his stomach, sizzling under his skin.

Bringing his blood to a boil.

_I need to take up smoking or something. _He thought as he sighed and leaned his head back against the tree at the same exact moment Vinny came tearing out of the cabin looking crazed.

Or perhaps he was more panicked than crazed.

The point here was that, Modo saw him and he was looking a little bit off even to the older man. _What the hell did he do now?_ Modo wondered in annoyance as Vinny started to run one way then turned around and started to go another, his hands pulling at the short fur on his head while his tail thrashed around anxiously behind his back.

Modo watched him for several moments then sighed a bit more heavily, his tone laced with frustration as he pushed away from the tree and thought, _One of these days that damn kid is going to have Throttle's boot shoved so far up his ass- He'll need to see a butcher just to have it removed again. _

"Modo! Where are you?" The younger mouse shouted and Modo felt his one eye twitch a bit while he thought, _I'm not dignifying that with a response, you retard. _

After all Vinny couldn't come crying to him everytime that Throttle wanted to kill him. No, he needed to learn to deal with their brother on his own. Whether he liked it or not was irrelivant. "Modo! _Modo_!" Vinny called out, his voice becoming more and more panicked by the moment. Causing the grey furred man to frown.

_What the hell had his younger bro so panicked? _He wondered again as the front door to the cabin opened and Throttle walked out looking like he had blood in his eye.

_Oh shit-_ Modo thought in alarm as the tawny furred man made his way over to the white man and wrapped an arm around his neck and all but snarled. "So you choked Ali-"

Modo started to get a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach as Throttle spun their younger brother and then cold cocked him across the jaw with his fist before continuing, "You're lucky she wasn't really hurt Vinny. Otherwise _I'd kill you_." Throttle said in a calmer tone even as he drew his other fist back and punched the younger man so hard that he nearly fell.

Vinny was crying by this point.

Whether it was from Throttle's words or simply because his jaw may have been broken by that first punch, Modo had no idea, but he didn't dare interfere at this point. If he did then Throttle would see it as having Modo try to usurp his authority. And it wouldn't end well.

Not for him. Not for Vinny. And certainly_ not_ for Throttle.

There were several more cracks- followed by Vinny crying a bit louder and just when Modo was finally ready to step in and stop his brother.

The younger man surprised him by grabbing Vinny as his legs started to buckle, and wrapped his arms around him as tightly as he dared and sank to the ground holding the sobbing and shaking mouse in his arms before finally saying, "Jesus Vinny, I wish you were still a kid so that I could spare you things like this."

Vinny didn't speak.

His jaw was too swollen and bruised to bother to speak anyways, but from where Modo was standing it looked like the white furred man was rubbing one hand slowly along Throttle's back as if he were trying to comfort him as much as Throttle was trying to comfort their little brother.


	19. Chapter 19

_She couldn't help but be troubled by what had just happened._

It was ridiculous, she knew, but Throttle's kiss had touched a part of her that she had thought was long dead. The part of her that she had thought had died with her family. Getting up from the floor, she climbed onto the bed and moved to where the window was. She supposed that she could try escaping...some phantom part of her mind whispered. All she would have to do is open the window and jump.

But the fall from there _was_ pretty far.

She'd wind up breaking her ankle or worse. And then there was the knowledge that if she did somehow miraculously manage to escape unharmed, her 'new' friends- and she used the term loosely here- were built for tracking and speed. They would be able to find her easily.

And chances were that they wouldn't like having to drag her ass back to the cabin kicking and screaming. In fact, there was always the chance that one of them may hurt her as punishment for running away.

Alice whimpered softly and buried her face in her hands again when she heard a commotion outside and quickly ducked so that it wasn't so obvious that she was near the glass.

Just in case the guys after her had finally found her.

She waited a minute or so before deciding to take a peek and held her breath as she saw something white run by under the window followed by the lazy gait of Throttle and frowned as he called something out to the white blurr that she now realized was one of the others. _Vinny. His name is Vinny. Must remember his name- it's important. _

Why? She wondered to herself as she saw the white furred mouse turn to face Throttle and square his shoulders. Trying to look like he wasn't scared of Throttle when she could tell just from one look that he obviously was as Throttle stepped into the open cracking his knuckles menacingly. For a moment nothing happened, they just stood there talking. Then suddenly in a blur of motion that was impossible for her to detect, Throttle punched the smaller mouse.

Alice gasped in shock, her eyes going wide in alarm as she felt the familiar prick of unshed tears and put one hand against the glass as if it would stop whatever dispute the two were having. It didn't. In fact niether of them seemed to notice their spectator as Vinny was hit, again, and again, and again before finally his legs couldn't hold him up anymore and he fell.

Throttle stepped forward just a bit and caught him in his grasp and sank to the ground on his knees with Vinny, his gloved hands holding the white mouse tightly against his chest as Vinny cried. Throttle spoke to him in low tones, his hands rubbing up and down his back in an effort to sooth his younger brother when movement from above them caught his eye.

Hugging Vinny one last time, he then told him to go inside and get some ice to put on his wounds and stayed on his knees as Vinny slowly got up and ambled away before looking up at his bedroom window.

There reflected in the glass was Alice's horrified face.

Fisting his hands at his sides, he felt his claws dig into his palms until they bled and sighed. It was best that she knew what kind of monster he could be before they mated.

Inside the house, Alice stepped as far away from the window as she could when Throttle's scarlet eyes had met her own. Her limbs shaking in fear, her breath coming out in quick short bursts that made her feel dizzy and faint she came to the realization that she couldn't stay in the cabin anymore.

If she did- Throttle would somehow kill her.


	20. Chapter 20

Alice spent a majority of that night laying awake in Throttle's bed listening to the voices, and sounds of noise coming from the kitchen, and front porch before finally falling into an exhausted sleep sometime around seven or eight in the morning. She must have been asleep for no more than an hour when she thought she heard the distant sound of the bedroom door creaking and felt a presence in the room with her a moment before said presence sat down on the edge of the bed, causing the mattress to dip under a heavy weight a moment before she felt something soft- a furry hand?- against the side of her face.

"Alice." Throttle's rough, darkly sinful voice permeated her mind swiftly bringing her back to consciousness. She jerked and gasped as she quickly sat up and looked around the room, her mind trying to recall where she was and how she had gotten there before recalling everything from the beginning all the way up to last night when she had seen Throttle beat his younger brother.

Once she was completely awake, she glanced over at Throttle.

The devil was still sitting there staring a hole right through her with those crimson eyes of his. His expression blank of any emotion as she rubbed her eyes then dropped her hands to glare at him and muttered, "You're a damned demon aren't you?"

Throttle tilted his head to the side a little bit as he considered her words, a small humorless smile tugging at his lips as he replied, "If I am, then I'm at your command."

Growling, Alice tossed the thin blankets on the bed aside and snapped, "Liar.' As she shifted her body so that she could get out of bed, moving to the farthest corner of the bed so as to give Throttle a wide berth.

She wasn't in the mood to mess with the alien today.

Throttle however seemed to feel displeased about being called a liar and so wrapped his tail around her ankle and pulled. Dragging her body across the bed so that she wound up on her stomach within arms reach of him- thus stopping her escape as he reached out and slipped his hands under her and flipped her over onto her back. Watching in faint amusement as she bounced once or twice before settling then leaned over her until his face was a mere inch or so from hers, his nose almost touching her own and growled, "I'm not a liar."

Leaning in a bit more he brushed his nose against hers, slowly, deliberately, and watched her to gauge her reaction and sensed the small tremor that ran through her body and almost smiled. Almost.

However he wasn't feeling terribly happy at the moment. Not with the night he'd just had.

No, right now what he needed was a measure of comfort. The beating he'd given Vinny last night for hurting Alice had left him feeling raw emotionally. So much so that there was a peculiar tightness in the center of his chest that he felt was suffocating him.

Then a while after that, Modo had returned to the cabin and argued with him well into the morning hours before one of their security alarms had been tripped forcing the two brothers to leave their wounded baby brother behind at the cabin and go out into the woods to see who was trespassing on their land this time.

It turned out to be a few more people like the ones they had killed the day that they had met Alice. They had dealt with the group quickly and savagely, not feeling the need to spare any now that Alice was part of their family unit.

Then had returned from their venture only a little while ago after disposing of the bodies. And the second they had been back Throttle had checked on Vinny who hadn't moved from the living room couch since they had left. And then they had gone to shower and wash the blood from their bodies.

He had figured that after seeing his brutal side the night before Alice might appreciate the extra effort. Besides, it wasn't like he could go to her with blood on his hands anyways. That would just scare her.

And that in itself would pointlessly impede his efforts.

Rubbing the tip of his nose against hers again, he felt some small measure of relief. The tightness that had been in his chest before, was easing gradually and for that he was grateful. Sighing tiredly, he moved away from Alice and finally stood up.

"Breakfast will be ready in five. Make sure that you're dressed properly before coming down." He said as he headed for the door, giving Alice a chance to stick her little tongue out at his back then scramble off of the bed and slam the door closed the second he was through it.

Throttle stood outside his bedroom with his head tilted just slightly to the side, listening to Alice mutter oaths and less than flattering swear words about him, under her breath.


	21. Chapter 21

Alice took her time getting dressed after sneaking a shower, taking just enough time to possibly upset the routine of Throttle and his brothers since she wasn't exactly looking forward to breakfast at the moment. The sight of the tan furred alien beating the younger, white furred alien last night- still playing in her mind. Reminding her that these were not civilized people she had been spending her time with.

These were highly intelligent, highly dangerous, _inhuman_ beings.

Beings with a different code of ethics and different morals. Beings that had lived in the woods in seclusion for who knows how long until she had been chased into their territory and wounded by one of their traps.

Picking up a brush that had been given to her by the grey furred alien three days after her arrival at their home, she began to pull the brush through her long hair. Wincing slightly when she wound up pulling on one of the tangles. It took her about three minutes to brush her hair free of the tangles. She was about to put her hair up off of her nape when there was a loud thump- like the sound of a large hand hitting the bedroom door almost angrily.

The door rattled a bit, but stayed closed as she heard Throttle's muffled voice from the other side of the door, "Come on Alice. Breakfast is ready and your keeping everyone waiting."

It was on the tip of her tongue to tell him to go to hell. She'd come out whenever she damned wanted too, but at the last moment she thought better of it and bit the inside of her cheek...hard.

"Alice," Throttle's tone changed slightly, shifting from irritation (at being kept from eating on time she'd bet) to concern. "Alice?" He said again as the door rattled a bit.

She heard him mutter an oath under his breath when the door didn't open. But of course it wasn't going to open- she had locked it shortly after getting up. Right around the time he had sauntered out of the room after his visit this morning. She door rattled a bit more on it's hinges before he stopped trying to force it open, causing her to smirk a little and think, _Ha! Let's see you get in now jerk. _A mere moment before Throttle growled, "Alice answer me..."

Her heart skipped a beat in her chest upon hearing his tone.

He sounded so worried and impatient all at once, like all he wanted in the world was to hear her voice or see her face. _What was up with that? _She wondered as he ground out from between clenched teeth, "Alice, I'm going to kick the door down and if I find out that you've hung yourself or slit your wrists- I'm going to bring you back from the dead and tie you to my bed and play with you until your body comes apart under my hands."

Alice's jaw dropped open in shock as a flush worked it's way up her neck to her face. He was going to what?! She wondered as a shiver worked it's way down her spine causing her to wrap her arms around herself a moment before she heard the faint sound of Throttle's heavy footfalls moving away from the door.

Not even ten seconds later the bedroom door swung open and hit the opposite wall with a loud **bang **and Throttle walked into the room and looked right at her, his expression dark until he saw her more or less huddled down into herself.

After a moment or so his expression softened and he crossed the small distance between them and grabbed her roughly by the shoulders and pushed her back until the back of her knees hit the bed, causing her to topple over. Throttle followed her down, but at a more controlled pace. After watching her bounce once then settle on the bed, her eyes wide and her expression almost panic stricken.

_Holy shit- _He really had kicked the door in, hadn't he?

Throttle crawled onto the bed over the spot where Alice lay, his body pinning her own without touching. His thighs straddling her waist, his hands on either side of her head as he leaned down and was about to bury his nose against the side of her neck, when he felt Alice's small hands come up and push against his chest.

But not one to be deterred after the scare she'd just given him- Throttle reached up and grasped her small wrists in his hands and pinned them to the bed beside side of her head and felt her body tremble under him as her scent changed slightly, giving him a good whiff of her fear. The tangy nutmeg like scent hitting him hard, causing the pressure that had been in his chest earlier to reappear.

Sniffing the air for a moment, he then sighed and released her hands and framed her face with his large palms and leaned in just enough to ask in a whispered tone, "Why are you afraid?"

He shouldn't have bothered asking a question he already knew the answer to. She was scared of- no- terrified of him. And after the shit that she had seen him do to Vinny last night, he couldn't really say that he blamed her. Sighing he backed off a bit. But not before he gave her a quick nuzzle. Pressing his nose against the curve of her jaw, then removed himself from the bed.

His large body moving at a speed that she didn't seem able to process as he went from the bed to the door in what must have been the mere blink of an eye and looked back at her longingly then quickly vanishing from her sight.


	22. Chapter 22

**_Yo- everyone! I'm back, more or less, to do some re writing and updating on my BMFM stories. _**

**_And since it's been a while I thought I'd update Bent._**

(*********************************************************************************************************************************************)

The moment Throttle was out the door and half way down the stairs, he started to silently berate himself for being an idiot.

No scratch that he was an ass. How could he just kick in the only shield Alice kept firmly in place to help make her safe and accost her like that? Was he a total moron? Had his alien hormones suddenly gotten the best of him and overridden his common sense?

There were a reason why doors existed. Two reasons. One was safety, and another was security. And then there was the third reason, to sometimes lock monsters out. Which technically was the same as the first two but then again, technically not.

Alice had seen him beat Vincent the night before (that and aside from personal privacy) were why he was sure she had locked the door to his room. And he, being the fool that he was had just trampled on her right to privacy- and to hide from him if she so wished- and had knocked the door in just so that he could... He could...

_Well hell-_ He mentally sneered to himself.

Actually at this precise moment he wasn't entirely sure why he had kicked the door in now that he really thought about it. Perhaps he had done it to assure himself that she truly was still there, alive and well. But then again, perhaps he had merely wanted her to see the beast that he had become and accept him.

God knew that he craved her acceptance as surly as he craved the feel of her soft body pressed against his own.

But that would have to wait until she came to terms with what was between them. And by now she was slowly figuring out that there _was_ something between them. Something that neither of them would escape no matter how hard they tried. And the fact that she was just now putting things together in her mind, was a matter that he found most vexing since she was the one who had started this whole mess by scenting him in the first place.

But after spending what time he had with her since bringing her to the cabin, Throttle had learned a little bit about his Alice to know the reason why she hadn't started to realize what his interest in her was all about. It was because she had lived alone ever since she had escaped the ordeal that had robbed her of her adolescent years. Years that she should have spent learning about boys and sex and stuff.

Not that he found her to be totally ignorant. Just...helplessly innocent for a woman of her years.

It was nothing troubling or terrible, in fact he found the idea of being her _first_ and_ last_ lover quite thrilling if he really thought about it. And he did think about it. A lot. Especially now after the stunt he had just pulled.

Walking quickly past the dining room table where Modo was fussing over Vinny after making his breakfast into a shake of sorts so that he could drink it through a straw without hurting himself- The grey furred mouse stopped what he was doing for a moment and glanced at Throttle as he went right on by him and barely had the time to ask, "Where's Ali-girl?" Before Throttle growled out,

"Probably climbing out of my bedroom window." As he hit the front door with one hand, causing it to swing open and back with such force that the windows in the cabin rattled when he stepped out and slammed it closed behind him.

He'd suddenly lost his appetite.

Which was a crying shame considering the spread that had been made this morning, but his thoughts at the moment were simply too chaotic for him to sit still in the same place as Alice and not want to reach out and touch her. So perhaps some space would be best right now.

Besides, he could always make up for what he missed now at lunch time.


	23. Chapter 23

Throttle returned to the cabin a few hours later to find his bros looking around the living room with funny expressions on their faces that bordered on panic and quickly took note that the furniture in the room had been overturned.

The tables and chairs lay on the floor on either their sides or backs, the coffee tables and everything else lay on their sides or tops, the lower cabinet doors in the kitchen were open, and the chests in the far corner where they kept some of their smaller weapons and ammunition clips was open and the contents had been dumped on the floor and scattered around.

_What the hell? _Throttle wondered as they finally caught sight of him standing in the doorway and exchanged glances as he demanded, "What happened here?"

"Alice is gone." Modo said simply, not bothering to sugar coat the truth of _why_ their home was such a wreck. They'd ripped the place apart themselves while trying to find her. Hoping that they had merely _'misplaced_' the female somehow instead of lost her.

Throttle scowled for a moment before saying stupidly, "Gone," His brain not really able to process the news that his mate was missing- or had suddenly gone missing while his brothers had been at the cabin. Quickly taking a step inside, Throttle moved to the middle of the living room and bellowed, "Alice!" Hoping that she was just hiding somewhere in the house, and if so- she'd come out if she heard him call for her.

But then after a second or so he realized that that hope was pretty much in vain since his fuck up earlier when he had accosted the poor girl. So of course she would hide somewhere he couldn't find her and not come out. She didn't want a repeat of before. Heading for the stairs, he called for her several more times as he took them two at a time until he got to the second floor and headed straight for his bedroom.

And once reaching it- peered inside wondering if she was hiding somewhere in there. But she wasn't, he could tell that automatically. The window was open and her scent was faded somewhat, meaning that she must have climbed out his window after what he had done to her earlier and run. _Dammit! _He thought as he clenched his jaw so hard that his teeth hurt while curling his clawed fingers into tight fists.

Where was she? Where was his Alice? He wondered as he made his way over to the window and peeked outside.

Easily spotting the area where Alice had landed on the ground and even noticing some places in the grass where she'd left foot prints leading into the woods. Staring at the evidence of her escape for a moment, Throttle's mind went blank as his sight turned red and he peeled his upper lip back from his teeth and snarled with rage.

_Oh that little-_ He thought darkly as a raw fury began a slow burn in the center of his chest. When he got his hands on Alice next... He'd see to it that she didn't so much as move from his bedroom or bed again without facing the dire consequences of his wrath. Or something to that effect.

Well- he'd have to figure it out later. After all his girl was missing ad the woods in every direction leading up to the cabin were booby trapped. And the last thing Alice needed was to get injured again. Even if it would keep her from running away from them- He didn't like the idea of her being injured and not having someone to help her.

Many of the booby traps around the area where they lived were nasty things. Almost mid evil. They were meant to shatter and break bones, take out internal organs and limbs and leave the victim/victims to die as slowly and painfully as possible. And the longer he stood here the more he could imagine her at the mercy of one or more such traps.

And nothing his mind conjured was pleasant.

It reminded him of the day Charlie had died.

It reminded him of the helplessness of himself and his bros. Their fear and concern. Charlie's cries of terror as she was slowly cut in half, spilling her insides onto a dirty floor while they- still chained at the ankles, tried to reach her as she choked on her own blood and died right before their eyes.

His body started to tremble slightly, and he found himself blinking his eyes rapidly before dashing into his bathroom and quickly dropping to his knees in front of the toilet and retching so violently that it felt as if some of his organs were being rattled loose or something. By the time he was done he was almost in a full blown panic. So much so that he didn't hear Modo and Vinny (despite not really being in any condition to move) come into his room to get him so that they could each go looking for her, and found him on his bathroom floor as he finally finished puking and reached a shaky hand out to flush the toilet.

"Throttle..." Modo said gently as he knelt down close to him to ask if he was okay only to be cut off by Throttle as he choked out.

"We need to each carry first aid kits with us. We need to stock them with two tranks, some pain killers, enough gauze to make a make-shift cast for a broken bone, a small switchblade, needles, thread, antiseptic, snake anti venom- the works. But it has to be small enough to carry at a quick pace. Vinny- you stay here just in case she comes back so that you can contact us. Modo and I will look for her. We'll carry radio's on us. We check in every hour until dark then we come back here regardless. Once it get's light out again- we start the search again."


End file.
